{"title":"Civil unrest and firm performance: evidence from Chile","authors":"Christian Espinosa-Méndez","doi":"10.17811/ebl.11.3.2022.118-124","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17811/ebl.11.3.2022.118-124","url":null,"abstract":"This investigation is the first to analyze how civil unrest impacts the performance of companies. Using a panel composed of 99 non-financial firms listed on the Santiago de Chile Stock Exchange during the period between the first quarter of 2017 and 2020 we find that civil unrest negatively impacts firm performance. This effect is asymmetric among the different industrial sectors with the Trade and Industrial sectors being the most adversely affected. On the other hand, the Agriculture-fishing and Utilities sectors show a better performance.","PeriodicalId":43184,"journal":{"name":"Economics and Business Letters","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-07-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44776070","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Oluwaseyi Olopade, Beatrice D. Simo-Kengne, Abieyuwa Ohonba
{"title":"The impact of financial constraints on investment efficiency in South Africa","authors":"Oluwaseyi Olopade, Beatrice D. Simo-Kengne, Abieyuwa Ohonba","doi":"10.17811/ebl.11.3.2022.125-133","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17811/ebl.11.3.2022.125-133","url":null,"abstract":"Shifts from firm-level investment efficiency occur due to market imperfections and informationasymmetry. This translates to an increased cost of capital, which leads to over or under-investments. This study demonstrates the absence of a direct association between investmentefficiency and financial constraints in African firms, complementing the efficient markethypothesis. We observed firms across different industries listed on the JSE from 2009 to 2019.Empirical results from panel data analysis reveal that financial constraints drive improvedinvestment levels and firms in this region depend on external funds – specifically credits – toinvest.","PeriodicalId":43184,"journal":{"name":"Economics and Business Letters","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-07-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49408799","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Government responses, democracy, and COVID-19 containment: a cross-country study","authors":"T. Huynh, Duy Duong","doi":"10.17811/ebl.11.3.2022.98-106","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17811/ebl.11.3.2022.98-106","url":null,"abstract":"By drawing the monthly data of 33 advanced economies in 2020, this paper explores the effectiveness of government responses and the level of democracy in containing the COVID-19 spread. Our results show that the government responses effectively ‘flatten the curve’ of infected cases and death cases. Concomitantly, the higher level of democracy simultaneously contributes the joint effect with government responses to the lower association with the number of infected cases in these countries. However, it is more noticeable that this effect does not persist or significantly exhibit heterogeneous effects. These two aforementioned points contribute a shred of empirical evidence to the existing literature about the COVID-19 studies. Therefore, our study has some relevant policy implications.","PeriodicalId":43184,"journal":{"name":"Economics and Business Letters","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-07-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41907934","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Policy uncertainty sensitivity, COVID-19 and industry returns in the United States","authors":"Asil Azimli","doi":"10.17811/ebl.11.3.2022.107-117","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17811/ebl.11.3.2022.107-117","url":null,"abstract":"This paper examines if industries with higher economic policy uncertainty (EPU) sensitivity also respond differently to the evolution of COVID-19 pandemic. Initially, industries are allocated into decile portfolios according to their sensitivity to the US-EPU shocks, then portfolio returns are conditioned against changes in daily cases and deaths, respectively. After controlling for the standard risk-factors of equity returns, neither the cases nor deaths can load significantly against the returns of portfolio with the highest negative EPU exposure. However, industries which respond positively to the US-EPU shocks also respond positively to increases in cases and deaths.","PeriodicalId":43184,"journal":{"name":"Economics and Business Letters","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-07-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48659980","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The political economy of state right to farm amendments: evidence from Missouri","authors":"Levi A. Russell, Joshua Hall","doi":"10.17811/ebl.11.3.2022.93-97","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17811/ebl.11.3.2022.93-97","url":null,"abstract":"Right-to-farm laws started in the 1970s. In 2014, Missouri residents voted on a right-to-farm constitutional amendment that gave farmers constitutional protection from nuisance suits related to agricultural production. The Amendment passed 50.12% to 49.88%. We use an empirical median voter model on county-level voting data to analyze the determinants of yes voting. We find that an increased presence of agricultural interests in a county as measured by head of cattle, acres planted, and % employed in agriculture were associated with a higher percentage of yes votes. Our results highlight the importance of widespread farm interests obtaining constitutional projections for farming.","PeriodicalId":43184,"journal":{"name":"Economics and Business Letters","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-07-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43113737","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Does offshoring boost productivity? A comparison of SMEs and large firms for Germany","authors":"Fabian Kreutzer, Wolfram Berger","doi":"10.17811/ebl.11.2.2022.46-52","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17811/ebl.11.2.2022.46-52","url":null,"abstract":"We use plant-level evidence for Germany to explore the productivity effects of offshoring of small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) and compare them to those derived for a sample of large companies. SMEs usually face tighter resource constraints than larger companies, thus making it harder for them to reap the potential productivity gains associated with offshoring. We find evidence for the group of SMEs that plants that offshore business activities tend to be among the more productive ones, ex ante. However, offshoring plants lose this edge over their non-offshoring counterparts. The initial productivity gap is reversed, and the productivity of offshoring plants lags behind even several years after offshoring has actually taken place. Neither observation can be confirmed for large companies.","PeriodicalId":43184,"journal":{"name":"Economics and Business Letters","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-04-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47409096","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A note on the human capital and tourism growth nexus: a semi-parametric approach","authors":"M. Polemis, Aikaterina Oikonomou","doi":"10.17811/ebl.11.2.2022.79-87","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17811/ebl.11.2.2022.79-87","url":null,"abstract":"We investigate the impact of human capital on tourism growth by using a semi-parametric fixed effects estimator developed in Baltagi and Li (2002). The results shed new light on the existing literature since they unveil strong non-linear effects of human capital on tourism growth. Furthermore, we uncover a non-monotonic “M-shaped” curve between human capital and growth when we impose the assumption of imperfect labor substitutability.","PeriodicalId":43184,"journal":{"name":"Economics and Business Letters","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-04-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44206239","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Institutional quality and health outcomes: evidence from the EU countries","authors":"Anand Sharma, Vipin Sharma, Shekhar Tokas","doi":"10.17811/ebl.11.2.2022.70-78","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17811/ebl.11.2.2022.70-78","url":null,"abstract":"This paper examines the effect of the quality of economic institutions on health outcomes for the E.U. countries from 2000 to 2018. Using data from the World Bank and the Fraser Institute, the paper uses fixed effects and random effects models to investigate the relationship between institutional quality and health. The results suggest that an improvement in the quality of economic institutions has a favourable effect on health. Specifically, the results highlight that an efficient legal system, a stable macroeconomic environment, and fewer regulations improve health outcomes in the E.U. countries. The paper also finds that higher per capita income, increase in education, and faster urbanization enhance health outcomes.","PeriodicalId":43184,"journal":{"name":"Economics and Business Letters","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-04-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44215551","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Intensity of competition and firm innovative behavior","authors":"Daragh O’Leary, J. Doran, B. Power","doi":"10.17811/ebl.11.2.2022.53-69","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17811/ebl.11.2.2022.53-69","url":null,"abstract":"Using a novel self-reported measure competitive intensity and four distinct forms of innovation (product, process, marketing and organisational) from the European Commission Flash Eurobarometer 433 dataset, this paper comprehensively identifies the impact of competitive pressure on firm innovation for four broad sectors of the economy. A logit model by innovation type is used to estimate the impact of the intensity of competition on the firm’s decision to innovate. Firm reported intensity of competition is found to have a positive impact on product and market innovation. Significant heterogeneities exist in the impact of minor and major degrees of competition across innovation types and sectors supporting both Arrow’s (1962), and to a lesser degree Schumpeter’s (1943), perspectives on this relationship.","PeriodicalId":43184,"journal":{"name":"Economics and Business Letters","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-04-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45713325","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"On the effectiveness of reward-based policies: Are we using the proper concept of tax reward?","authors":"Gaetano Lisi","doi":"10.17811/ebl.11.1.2022.41-45","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17811/ebl.11.1.2022.41-45","url":null,"abstract":"Tax reward is considered an important element of fiscal policies for spurring tax compliance. Empirically, however, the effectiveness of reward-based policies is not confirmed. This short theoretical paper suggests that this discrepancy might just be due to the use of a “wrong” concept of tax reward in empirical and experimental works.","PeriodicalId":43184,"journal":{"name":"Economics and Business Letters","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-01-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44490027","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}